A Rough Choice

I will start by saying the critiques of Pebble Beach can come across as both trendy and tedious. The same goes for critiques and nitpicks of tournament golf setups. Dilletantes pile on and it can wash over the serious attempts at analysis and improvement. So the usual disclaimers: Pebble is an incredible venue worthy of praise and all the major championships, and the USGA is incredibly qualified in championship course setups. A few critiques or debates do not make them “trash.” This isn’t Twitter (or are we saying Threads now?).

Nevertheless, I’d heard the warnings from some of my colleagues on a few of the mowing lines for this week’s U.S. Women’s open and still recoiled in horror when I saw recent drone footage of the eighth hole posted on social media. I still wasn’t ready for how odd and small the patch of tightly-cut grass at the top of the hill looked from overhead. It looks like botched plastic surgery on one of the great natural holes on one of the greatest golf course features.

Andy and I got into this a little bit on the Shotgun Start on Wednesday, and Garrett did as well on The Fried Egg podcast, among other platforms. It seems that “hard” was the goal of narrowing two of the more beautiful holes on earth—the aforementioned eighth, and the incomparable par-5 sixth. It looks weird and, especially at the sixth, the options are reduced and so is the risk or execution from a flirtation with this course’s greatest hazard.

Instead of the excitement of watching your friend amble down the bar to crash-and-burn or somehow get the number of the attractive single, you just sit there and make a (respectful!) comment about how beautiful he/she is and do nothing. You’re in the presence of beauty but robbed of the glee of watching the implosion or the incredulous cheering of something successful being pulled off by your enterprising friend.

We’re left to look at how pretty that nearby ocean is but has been taken out of play for the rare bold soul willing to take a swing and play closer to it for some reward. There’s some irony in the message of the great Michelle Wie tribute video posted by the USGA being “to live boldly.”

Even if only a scant few might try to play to a more level lie and better angle out to the right near the cliff at the sixth, we should still allow them the option to do it! Instead, any reward is now covered in rough, limiting options and outcomes (both good and bad).

For emphasis and clarity, here are illustrations by our colleague Cameron Hurdus, who visited Pebble during this spring’s media day, that outline the narrowing. The eighth is a close approximation of the narrowing difference, while the sixth is precise.

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Update: Here’s another photo of the narrowing on the ground this week, via Andy.

Nelly Korda suggested additional rough at the eighth may have been to prevent a repeat Jordan Spieth near-death situation. Danielle Kang suggested she’s been practicing layups to the bottom of the hill at 6 because a drive in the rough will make a second shot over “the wall,” as she termed it, almost impossible. So fewer near-death plays and more dinky hack-it-out layups to the same patch of fairway. We’re really cutting down on the fun here!

It’s nearly Torrey-esque to waste a nearby ocean by buttressing it with acres of rough. The scores may be, overall, higher, but we’re limiting the potential for this course’s great natural feature to actually come into play at spots designed to create options and intrigue.

The holes will still look pretty on TV and great shots will be played there. Call me tedious. It just feels like an unforced error that doesn’t look quite right upon closer examination.